Youthful indiscretions and parenting

by fritzg · No Comments

In 2000 George W. Bush said that when he was young and foolish he did young and foolish things. When his drunk driving arrest became public he said he did not divulge it himself because he did not want his daughters to know about it.
The cover story in yesterday’s Washington Post Magazine is about youthful [...]

Tags: awareness · parenting

faux pottery, real art . . . real awareness

by fritzg · No Comments

Today my workplace had a spiritual retreat where we slowed down and painted our own plates for the office. We went to a cute little place in Silver Spring where we got to pick out our plates and paint them in preparation for glazing and firing.
Having done pottery, I was disappointed the plates were from [...]

Tags: awareness · pottery

iPhone pics

by fritzg · No Comments

Ok. The flickr feed in the sidebar is a feed of my iPhone pics. Mary and I are using “technology to bridge the geographic divide.” Sounds so web 2.0, but so what, it works. We’re both taking pics and sharing them so we can still be a part of each other’s experience. Check out the [...]

Tags: awareness · walk

The Honda . . .

by fritzg · No Comments

Back in 2006 I wrote about our beloved Honda. It had reached 250,000 miles. We were pretty proud of that. An update.

Late last summer as it was parked in front of my house a drunk driver crossed the street and totaled it. Thank goodness no one was hurt, but our car was no more. The [...]

Tags: Uncategorized · awareness · economics

Sacred Place, Sacred Art, Sacred Practice

by fritzg · No Comments

After close to an 18 month break, I return to blogging. A lot has happened in the last 18 months and that will be reflected in the coming posts.
This week I am experiencing the loss of something sacred.
A while back I began taking pottery classes at a local Franciscan Retreat Center and Arts Studio in [...]

Tags: awareness · walk

attention christmas shoppers

by fritzg · No Comments

The Daily Kos has a great post about extended warranties. Simply put, don’t buy them.
I’ve known for a long time they were not worth it and have avoided them, but Kos’ post details just how much profit the big box places make on these things and shows them for the scam they are.
The sad thing [...]

Tags: awareness · economics · justice

St. Nicholas Day

by fritzg · No Comments

Well, I’m pretty much of a scrooge about Christmas. I don’t like the whole consumerism thing. I don’t like families pretending they’re perfect. I don’t like . . . well, I could go on and on.
But I do love taking back tradition and ritual. This article by Mahanoy over at StreetProphets does that for me [...]

Tags: awareness · economics

Is This the America You Believe In?, Part 2

by fritzg · 1 Comment

Elections in the US are next Tuesday, but two days before that Nicaragua is holding it’s own national election. Check out this Common Dreams article by Ben Beachy of Witness for Peace on how the US is involved. I traveled to Nicaragua in November of 2004 with WFP and roomed with Ben while visiting coffee [...]

Tags: awareness · human rights · justice · peacemaking

Is This the America You Believe In?

by fritzg · No Comments

In September Congress passed the Military Commissions Act allowing this and any future President & Sec. of Defense to declare someone, anyone, an enemy combatant and basically strip them of rights we hold dear. In the words of a New York Times news analysis: “In effect it allows the president to identify enemies, imprison them [...]

Tags: amnesty international · awareness · do · human rights · justice · peacemaking